May 22, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



779 



The above reference to the Starling in Dr. 

 Shufeldt's paper, taken witli other passages in 

 the same article, clearly reveals the animus 

 of his critique. 



J. A. Allen. 



' WHAT IS TRUTH ? ' 

 In all our speculations concerning nature what we have 

 to consider is the general rule. For that is natural which 

 holds good. 



Aristotle, Parts of Animals III., II., 16. 

 Knowledge is a double of that which is. 



Mr. Bacon in Praise of Kno-svledge. 

 Nature means neither more nor less than that ivhich is. 

 Huxley, VII., p. 154. 



If the author of the letter on ' The Material 

 and the Efficient Causes of Evolution' (Science, 

 p. 668), will refer to an article which the Editor 

 asked me to give him, and printed in Science 

 in February, 1895 (Vol. I., No 5, p. 125), I think 

 he must admit that I, at least, have not commit- 

 ted the blunder which he lays to the charge of 

 certain unspecified ' Neo-Darwinians' and 'Neo- 

 Lamarckians,' and that there is no just cause or 

 reason why my name should be dragged into 

 print in this connection. 



However, I heartily agree with him that rig- 

 orous exactness is necessary in the use of philo- 

 sophical language ; and I also agree with him 

 that, when no qualification is used, or implied, 

 the English word cause should mean ' that which 

 produces a thing and makes it what it is; ' al- 

 though it is one thing to define a word and 

 quite another thing to show the existence of 

 any corresponding reality. 



As I am advised by this writer to consider 

 Aristotle and be wise, I refer the reader to the 

 passage I have put at the top of this letter, for 

 it shows that this great naturalist is in accord 

 with Bacon and Huxley in the opinion that our 

 business in this world is to learn all we can of 

 the order of nature, leaving to more lofty minds 

 the attempt to find out what it is that ' produces 

 a thing and makes it what it is,' and every 

 other ' necessary condition of truth ' except 

 evidence. 



This correspondent says the word conceive 

 is not used with precision in my assertion that, 

 evidence seeming adequate, I believe things 

 which I cannot conceive. As Huxley has never 



been accused of inexactness in the use of 

 words I call attention to the following passages 

 which show that this cautious thinker also be- 

 lieved what he could not conceive. 



"I cannot conceive how the phenomena of con- 

 sciousness are to be brought within the bounds 

 of physical science," IX., III., 122. 



' ' I believe that we shall, sooner or later, ar- 

 rive at a mechanical equivalent of conscious- 

 ness, just as we have arrived at a mechanical 

 equivalent of heat, " I., VI., 191. 



W. K. Brooks. 

 May 4th, 1896. 



THREE subcutaneous GLANDULAR AREAS OF 

 BLARINA BREVICAUDA. 



To THE Editor of Science : Though the 

 subcutaneous glands in Soricidse have received 

 much attention, these structures are not so well 

 known in all details that further observations 

 on the subject can be considered superfluous. 



In examining perfectly fresh individuals of the 

 common short-tailed shrew, Blarina brevicauda, 

 taken in midwinter, when glandular develop- 

 ment or activity is presumably less evident than 

 it becomes during the rut, I find three large 

 glandular areas — a lateral pair and one infero- 

 median. 



On each side of the body, midway between 

 the fore and hind limbs, may easily be recog- 

 nized a glandular area, half an inch long and 

 one-half as wide, in part overlying the posterior 

 border of the thorax, and thence extending 

 oyer the abdomen. This is observable without 

 dissection ; for, on blowing aside the long hairs 

 which cover it, the space appears to be naked, 

 though it is in fact clothed with short adpressed 

 colorless pelage, like that on the dorsum of the 

 manus. Small flakes of the inspissated secre- 

 tion may be noticed ; but the glandular orifices 

 are too minute to be made out, even with a 

 hand lens, though these may become more 

 readily discernible at another season. Nor is 

 any musky odor perceptible in the present 

 specimens. 



The third glandular area of this shrew is 

 larger than the lateral ones, and this is the fact 

 to which I may direct particular attention. 

 This additional patch is situated on the median 

 line of the belly, opposite the lateral tracts, and 



